New Farm & Teneriffe (Inner Suburbs)

Situated only 2 kilometres from the Brisbane Central Business District, and located on the Brisbane River with two ferry terminals and a river path, lively New Farm has outstanding access to the beating heart of the city.

A suburb with a once-troubled reputation, New Farm has long since gentrified through the 1990s to become Brisbane’s premier position of choice (disclosure: AllenWargent co-founder Pete Wargent resides in New Farm, and also owns investment property in the suburb, and thus readily admits to some home suburb bias!).

The suburb contains some truly outstanding Queenslander houses as well as a small number of attractive townhouses, and a range of apartments in boutique-style blocks. The best apartments to own tend to be those with a point of uniqueness or scarcity value, including those with district or river views.

Covering an area of approximately 3 square kilometres, New Farm has two parks covering around a tenth of the suburb’s total area, including the phenomenally popular New Farm Park.

Across the decade leading up to the Census of 2016 the population of New Farm increased only moderately to about 12,500, showing a broadly stable population in the area during that time.

This reflects that, unlike some other inner city suburbs, New Farm is not at risk of being overbuilt, in part due to effective height restrictions on development (a salient challenge for Brisbane in 2018 will relate to an oversupply of apartments, and buyers of property must be cognisant of this risk).

Home to a great park and schools, New Farm is a tremendously popular suburb with young professionals and families being located so close to the city, and as a result the suburb primarily comprises childless couples, and small families.

In the 2017 Queensland Budget it was announced that a ‘vertical’ high school will be opened in the adjacent suburb of Fortitude Valley, with the catchment area set to incorporate New Farm.

Couples are likely to be paying around $2500 on mortgage repayments in New Farm. The home ownership rate in New Farm in 2017 sits at only around 40 per cent, reflecting that there are many apartment blocks in the landlocked suburb.

Some of the 1970s double-brick apartment blocks are owned by families of Italian heritage, reflecting the changing demographics of the suburb at that time.

In 2018, the median sales price of houses in the suburb was around $1.5 million – though with premium sales often achieving several times that amount – and the median price of apartments sits at around $550,000.

The adjacent suburb of Teneriffe shares the same post code as New Farm, and is also home to some of Brisbane’s most spectacular homes, especially on Teneriffe Hill. It is expected that by the end of 2017, Teneriffe will be Brisbane’s first suburb with a $3 million median house price. We have actively purchased homes in both New Farm and Teneriffe in recent years.

The lower reaches of New Farm, including some low-lying streets located close to the Brisbane River, have been prone to flooding in the past.

Although backflow devices have been installed since the 2011 floods, we avoid buying in flood zones due to the potential for a higher insurance premium, as well as the real or perceived risk of repeat episodes acting to constrain future capital growth.